1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an exchange connectable to a local area network (LAN).
2. Description of the Related Art
When connecting various application processors to a control unit of an exchange, or when connecting a remotely located centralized management unit to it, a LAN is connected to the control unit via a gateway, an agent console, or the like. The connection with the gateway or agent console is made via a data communication controller connected to an internal bus of the control unit.
In this case, the connection between the data communication controller and the gateway or agent console is set up through an RS-232C interface using a HDLC (High-Level Data Link Control) protocol. Since its transmission rate is 9600 bps, if the amount of data to be transmitted is large, there arises the problem that the transmission time increases.
One way to address this problem would be by connecting a LAN controller to the internal bus of the control unit of the exchange to enable the control unit to be connected directly to the LAN.
However, existing control software for exchange control units does not support the connection of LAN controllers; therefore, if the LAN is to be connected directly to the exchange, a control program specifically designed for the purpose has to be developed from scratch. In that case, an enormous amount of effort would have to be expended.to develop the program, presenting a problem in terms of the time and cost required for the development of the program.
An object of the present invention is to enable a control unit of an exchange to be economically connected to a LAN.
According to the present invention, there is provided an exchange connectable to a LAN (local area network), comprising: a processor-to-processor data communication controller connected to an internal bus of a control unit of the exchange; a general-purpose bus connected to the processor-to-processor data communication controller; a LAN controller, connected to the general-purpose bus, for enabling a connection to be made with the LAN; and a processor controller, connected to the general-purpose bus, for controlling the LAN controller.